Going Underground With Don The Batsman, Also A Bat Man
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday December 11, 2007
NATIONAL TREASURES 6.50pm, ABC: Here's a program that immigrants to the country stressing over the citizenship test will not want to miss. Few people are aware that Don Bradman was a world authority on flying foxes and chiroptera. After a hard day at the crease, the Don would, um, don his tailored black velvet overalls and retire to woodlands with binoculars to observe the habits of loveable crepuscular fledermice. Inspired by some obscure Walt Disney cartoon of the 1930s, he became a recognised expert on the creatures and built a renowned collection in an underground aviary beneath his residence. Warren Brown, a master of the arcane and fascinating minutiae from Fantale wrappers of the mid-1950s, delves into the national archives to reveal the preserved remains of Bradman's favourite specimen, nicknamed Pope Gregory the Drunk.
THE MADNESS OF MODERN FAMILIES 8pm, ABC: Here's a program sure to elicit howls of umbrage from grumpy old men (and women) everywhere. The series explores the follies of obsessive parents and the hoops they oblige their kids to jump through in pursuit of popularity, social cachet and overcompensation for various kinds of guilt. The first episode, examining birthday parties, suggests inmates on death row anticipate their appointment with the chair with more enthusiasm than parents approach celebrations to mark their kiddies' birthdays. When you observe the massive indulgence and ladder-climbing ostentation on offer you can understand why.CUTTING EDGE 8.30pm, SBS: Is there a more saturnine figure in the wings of the world stage than Dick Cheney? The US Vice-President is widely regarded as the brains behind the Bush Administration (if any). His secretive campaign to entrench the President's power and to orchestrate controversial legal decisions - many without congressional approval, support or judicial review - has left a stain on the nation's reputation. While railing against totalitarian regimes and abuses of power, he expanded executive power to detain, interrogate, torture, wire-tap and spy. The Justice Department has been white-anted and the White House seems poised to ignore subpoenas connected with investigations into dubious actions by the Attorney-General - and others. Has Cheney, like Rummy and others who fell on their Republican swords, been misunderstood? Of course!4. 7.30pm, SBS: How can a globe have four corners? Not the ABC's investigative program but four discrete segments with definite characteristics? Four seasons? OK. Join four renowned violinists as they relate the music of Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons to their homelands - the heat and thunderstorms of Australia, springtime blossoms of Japan, New York's joyous autumn and the human warmth that melts a Finnish winter's unforgiving cold. Lovely and amazing.DER ROSENKAVALIER, 12.10am, ABC: Herbert von Karajan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and vocalists "Stormin" Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Otto Edelmann in Richard Strauss's evergreen bon-bon directed by Paul Czinner. In the Royal Viennese court, the beautiful Marschallin is being wooed by Octavian, a handsome cavalier oblivious to the fact she is married. His attention is soon attracted when the boorish Baron Ochs enlists his service as the bearer of a rose to his intended bride, the Marschallin's younger sister. Light as a feather, aromatic as a grandmother's handbag and sweet as a candied piglet.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald